Lesson Plan Format
Butler Buddy Enrichment Groups
Date:
31 October 2011
Grade Level:
3&4
Session Number: 3
Focus Book or Theme: “Exploring the Titanic”
Butler Students: Chris Beaman & Abby McClure
Teaching point(s) for this lesson (What you want students to know or be able to do because of
their involvement in this session):
Students will begin their rough drafts of the historical fiction they are writing.
Students will see examples of a book similar to what they are writing.
Students will write with Butler buddies.
Students will draft a plan for the last day.
Integration of content areas: We are focusing heavily on the language arts component when
learning about the difference between fact and fiction books. In this particular lesson, we are
continuing to write our own historical fiction stories at writing our own stories as well as plan
another way to record our information.
Integration of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, movement, or the arts: We will be
reading parts from “Tonight on the Titanic” to give students more ideas on what their story
could entail. We asked students to have a general idea of the direction they wanted their story to
go, but we want to give them examples to help them develop their ideas further to give more
details.
Read aloud or demonstration: We are using “Tonight on the Titanic” which takes Jack and Annie
to the deck of the Titanic. The Magic Tree House transports them there for the beginning of a
long adventure.
Instructional strategies including planned discussion questions:
What instructional strategies will you use in what order? Give step-by-step descriptions so a
substitute could follow your plan.
1. We will start today’s lesson by finishing the storyboard. Last lesson, we started the
storyboard but instead of pictures, we decided that we want students to think of five fact
to work into our story. As we write about the characters (us) and their journey as they
dream they are on the Titanic, we need to come up with five facts we can include to make
our story historical fiction.
2. We will read aloud a brief part from “Tonight on the Titanic”. Students can get ideas for
our story by seeing how this story develops into being on the Titanic. This is another
example of historical fiction that is on the students level in a more structured format
(rather than a picture book).
3. After we finish the storyboard, we are going to being the rough draft of our story. We
will write down what the students want. As Chris brainstorms with Caulin and Sean, I
will work with Ajaylin on illustrations.
a. Ajaylin has a tough time focusing and settling down. The other two boys can
generally get to work, but Chris and I thought that separating them might be the
best. While the writing is a vital part, Ajaylin was very eager to do the
4.
5.
6.
illustrations. Since she also came up with the song, I’m going to work with her on
writing the lyrics down and discussing with her how we can incorporate more
information to tell listeners about learning about the Titanic.
After the rough draft is written, Ajaylin and I will do “peer editing” while the boys will
work on a cover for our book.
We will then start the work on our final draft. Based on our experience with the students,
we will do the writing for the book. The students focus so much on getting the spelling
right and it takes time for them to write. We will work together to write the story. Chris
and I will be sure to write exactly what they want to be written down. We will guide
them through the book by asking questions and encouraging their brainstorming ideas.
A job for Sean will be to illustrate the book as well as put it together.
a. We asked Sean to help us put the book together because he likes to be in the
background and be more low key. I think Sean is still learning because he
participates and puts forward ideas, but would rather do more of the hands-on
work.
We will finish the “L” part on the KWL chart.
Closure: How will you end the session?
- We will end the lesson by doing a storytelling hand. This way, students can have a
grasp on what they wrote and be able to retell the purpose and most importantly,
what makes it a historical fiction.
- **2nd day: we will finish the illustrations for the book and fill out the remainder of the
KWL chart!
On the back of this sheet:
Reflection on the lesson: What went well? What should have been changed? What will you
do differently next time? How will you follow-up on this lesson?
10/31:
Today’s lesson was better. We did not have enough time to get through
everything, which is why this lesson plan is for both the third and fourth
enrichment session. Today we finished the story board and picked five facts that
we want in the story:
1. The Titanic sunk because it hit an iceberg.
2. There were about 2,000 people that died.
3. All kinds of people were on the Titanic (diverse population)
4. The ship sunk 100 years ago in 1911.
5. The ships builders (along with everyone else) thought the Titanic was
unsinkable.
The students did some math and realized the 4th fact all on their own! Chris and I
decided that separating them for part of the session might help us get them to
focus better, so Ajaylin and I worked on her song that she wrote. We thought
about how we could incorporate what fiction/non-fiction is in her song, and
that’s about as far as we got. She is so hyper and jumping all the time that I could
not even get her to settle down. I eventually just brought us all back together in
hopes that we could get the rough draft done.
Chris was having troubles with the boys as well. They were not focusing
their attention on the story and instead more focused on these wild ideas that we
had never talked about. The ideas we originally came up were boring to them
now. We could have gotten more done if we could get them to focus. We will
have to follow up the lesson by finishing this one! We are not even close to
having the rough draft down, and Chris ended up writing a lot of it since the
boys could not focus. I think it was for the best that Chris was writing because it
gave so much more time for the students to come up with responses. Sometimes
their ideas did get out of hand, but they were brain storming and trying to be
creative. Although I did feel frustrated, I have to look at what they were offering
on the table. They did try to be creative in their ideas, and if we had more time to
finish this book, I think they would have had a crazy story! We also talked a little
bit about our “voice” in the story, and what point of view we were using. I wish
we could have gone into this further. Next lesson, we will definitely have to
finish the book and illustrate our story.
Final Enrichment Session: This lesson felt very rushed and we had to really press
our kids to get things done! Chris ended up continuing to write because our
rough draft became our final draft. Caulin wanted to write the “Author’s Note”
so we let the three of them split some of the work. Since they were all authors,
they all added to the note—even Sean! We all illustrated the book as well. They
actually really enjoyed getting to draw for the book, and we looked in all the
books we have read to get inspiration. The last thing we did was filling in the
rest of the KWL chart. The students were having a great discussion about what
they learned about reading the Titanic and also writing their historical fiction!
Ajaylin brought up how she has been in class and noticed more stories like
“Titanicat” or even like our story! Seeing her make connections to what she is
learning in her classroom felt like we really made an impact to help her with
these kinds of stories. Even though we only had four sessions, it seems as though
the students got a good grasp on writing a story that is fiction, but based on a
true event—which is a difficult idea when you really think about introducing it
to 8-year-olds. They have read these stories, but perhaps never explored what it
entails or writing it. I am proud of our lesson and know that even though they
were challenge to work with, I learned a lot more about patience and how to
better model and explain to the students rather than just talk at them.